I am overwhelmed by the ass-holery that is pervasive in the news this week. I can't...just can't comprehend how this is the world we live in now.

Without you guys and my family to balance it all out, I would just give up and swallow a lot of pills.

WTF Universe? WTFF!?

On the one hand, while my twitter is full of progressive people, the range of opinion within the "progressive" community is and has always been pretty large. Further, to my consternation, a lot of these people retweet bs to argue with it. So, in large measure I think I get exposed to a lot of range in terms of left wing and right wing arguments. More than I perhaps would like.

From my observation, people who tend to be right wing, are not exposed to such thoughtful debate from inside RW, much less opposing position outside. Progressives tend to give people a lot of benefit of the doubt - deserved or not. LW has its own fringe element, and folks who are too precious, but they tend to be marginalized here and there. I am more left than most of the people I follow, so I guess I can have these assessments.

You know what is awesome, though? My homemade yogurt popsicles.

You didn't put spinach in them, did you?

Even worse, as we go forward, is how you can get so much news from Facebook, but odds are that most people are in the same kind of echo chamber I am, where my facebook friends generally agree with me and care about the kinds of things I care about.

This is nicely stated. I see the same news I see because I am friends with like minded people for the most part, excluding some of my friends from high school. It always blows my mind when someone I've friended says something like, "It's about time that they are cannonizing Pope John Paul II" and I'm left gobsmacked. It's good for me to be surprised because I feel like everyone thinks like me, right? But still gobsmacked.

You didn't put spinach in them, did you?

That's my secret! No spinach.

I wish I'd been gobsmacked this morning when my aunt sent me a forward where Charlie Daniels defends Paula Deen, but unfortunately my reaction was, "Of course you fucking side with the racists."

I do not have any interest in finding out the news. I pick up stuff here or on Facebook or just general conversation and that is depressing enough.

This is pretty much me, though I do try to read at least a little of the newspaper each day.

Hey, I just called about the dog that followed us home on Wednesday, and he got picked up by his owners the next day. YAY

Re: spinach popsicles: :-P

I am such a homebody. I have been here teaching for less than 5 days and I miss my family like crazy. I hated living apart from mr. flea for 9 months the first year we were married. And yet there are people who do this sort of thing all the time - travel 50% of the time, academic couples - with kids! - who live in different states. Yoicks, I say.

I agree with you about the echo chamber, Jesse. It might be a bigger one than some of the people I'm angry with, but there's no reason for me to pretend that I'm not comforting myself and cutting myself off to some degree too.

My sister just informed me about the sprinting doping revelations (well, most recent ones, anyway) and I am holding my breath for the moment we find out Usain's doping too. That seems to be the right size of bad news right now--not mortal or foreboding or massive in scope, but shit in the way that reminds you that we are, as a species, SHIT.

Also, I have no popsicles. I think my current yoghurt and fresh blueberry obsession (imagine me buying one of each brand of fresh blueberries in three stores and pending so I can work out if I have a favourite, and then running out of blueberries inside a week) might need them. I'm assuming that I could make plain+blueberry popsicles, right? The question is, can I make plain+blueberry+granola popsicles. That is the question indeed.

I think it's part of my Virgo-ness, I can also do things like seriously organize a bathroom cabinet while having bottles and lotions an jewelry still all over the counter...but by then I'm too tired to clean those!

My Capricornicity does not suggest this is a particularly sign-specific trait.

And yet there are people who do this sort of thing all the time - travel 50% of the time, academic couples - with kids! - who live in different states. Yoicks, I say.

I just saw that the husband of an important person at my job got a job that is in LA, but I guess mostly on the weekend. They have small kids! What does this mean??

but there's no reason for me to pretend that I'm not comforting myself and cutting myself off to some degree too.

Oh yeah, I love it. I would be shocked if I turned on the national news and the first 15 minutes weren't about reproductive health and politics.

The question is, can I make plain+blueberry+granola popsicles. That is the question indeed.

Of course!